Sect. CLVI. — NOW let us come
to JOHN, who is also a most copious and powerful subverter of “Free-will.”

He, at the very first outset, attributes to “Free-will”
such blindness, that it cannot even see the light of the truth: so far is
it from possibility, that it should endeavour after it. He speaks thus,
“The light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not.” (John
i. 5). And directly afterwards, “He was in the world, and the world knew
Him not; He came unto His own, and His own knew Him not.” (Verses 10-11).

What do you imagine he means by “world?” Will you attempt to
separate any man from being included in this term, but him who is born again of
the Holy Spirit? The term “world” is very particularly used by this apostle; by
which he means, the whole race of men. Whatever, therefore, he says of the
“world,” is to be understood of the whole race of men. And hence, whatever he
says of the “world,” is to be understood also of “Free-will,” as that which is
most excellent in man. According to this apostle, then, the “world” does not
know the light of truth; the “world” hates Christ and His; the “world” neither
knows nor sees the Holy Spirit; the whole “world” is settled in enmity; all that
is in the “world,” is “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the
pride of life.” “Love not the world.” “Ye (saith He) are not of the world.” “The
world cannot hate you; but Me it hateth, because I testify of it that the works
thereof are evil.”

All these and many other like passages are proclamations
of what “Free-will’ is — ‘the principal part’ of the world, ruling the empire
of Satan! For John also himself speaks of the world by antithesis; making
the “world” to be, every thing in the world which is not translated into
the kingdom of the Spirit. So also Christ saith to the apostles, “I have
chosen you out of the world, and ordained you,” &c, (John xv. 16). If therefore,
there were any in the world, who, by the powers of “Free-will, “endeavoured
so as to attain unto good, (which would be the case if “Free-will” could
do any thing) John certainly ought, in reverence for these persons, to have
softened down the term, lest, by a word of such general application, he
should involve them in all those evils of which he condemns the world. But
as he does not this, it is evident that he makes “Free-will” guilty of all
that is laid to the charge of the world: because, whatever the world does,
it does by the power of “Free-will”: that is, by its will and by its reason,
which are its most exalted faculties. — He then goes on,

“But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to
become the sons of God; even to them that believe on His Name. Which were
born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man,
but of God.” (John i. 12-13).

Having finished this distinctive division, he rejects
from the kingdom of Christ, all that is “of blood,” “of the will of the
flesh,” and “of the will of man.” By “blood,” I believe, he means the Jews;
that is, those who wished to be the children of the kingdom, because they
were the children of Abraham and of the Fathers; and hence, gloried in their
“blood.” By “the will of the flesh,” I understand the devoted efforts of
the people, which they exercised in the law and in works: for “flesh” here
signifies the carnal without the Spirit, who had indeed a will, and an endeavour,
but who, because the Spirit was not in them, were carnal. By “the will of
man,” I understand the devoted efforts of all generally, that is, of the
nations, or of any men whatever, whether exercised in the law, or without
the law. So that the sense is — they become the sons of God, neither by
the birth of the flesh, nor by a devoted observance of the law, nor by any
devoted human effort whatever, but by a Divine birth only.

If therefore, they be neither born of the flesh, nor
brought up by the law, nor prepared by any human discipline, but are born
again of God, it is manifest, that “Free-will” here profits nothing. For
I understand “man,” to signify here, according to the Hebrew manner of speech,
any man, or all men; even as “flesh,” is understood
to signify, by antithesis, the people without the Spirit: and “the will
of man,” I understand to signify the greatest power in men, that is, that
‘principal part,’ “Free-will.”

But be it so, that we do not dwell thus upon the signification
of the words, singly; yet, the sum and substance of the meaning is most
clear; — that John, by this distinctive division, rejects every thing that is
not of Divine generation; since he says, that men are made the sons of God none
otherwise than by being born of God; which takes place, according to his own
interpretation — by believing on His name! In this
rejection therefore, “the will of man,” or “Free-will,” as it is not of
divine generation, nor faith, is necessarily included. But if “Free-will”
avail any thing, “the will of man” ought not to be rejected by John, nor
ought men to be drawn away from it, and sent to faith and to the new birth
only; lest that of Isaiah should be pronounced, against him, “Woe unto you
that call good evil.” Whereas now, since he rejects alike all “blood,” “the
will of the flesh,” and “the will of man,” it is evident, that “the will
of man” avails nothing more towards making men the sons of God, than “blood”
does, or the carnal birth. And no one doubts whether or not the carnal birth
makes men the sons of God; for as Paul saith, “They which are the children
of the flesh, these are not the children of God;” (Rom. ix. 8), which he
proves by the examples of Ishmael and Esau.